9/11 Victims' Families Sue Saudis

— -- 9/11 Victims' Families Sue Saudis

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 15 — Some 600 family members of Sept. 11 victimsfiled a trillion-dollar lawsuit Thursday against the Sudanesegovernment and Saudi officials, banks and charities, charging theyfinanced Osama bin Laden's network and the attacks on America.

The 15-count federal lawsuit, modeled after action filed againstLibya in the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster, seeks to cripple banks,charities and some members of the Saudi royal family as a deterrentto terrorist financing schemes.

But the suit also is therapeutic for relatives of the victims,who acknowledge they face long odds of collecting anything.

"It's not the money. We want to do something to get at thesepeople," said Irene Spina, whose daughter, Lisa L. Trerotola, 38,perished in the World Trade Center. "There's nothing else we cando."

"This is the right thing to do," said Matt Sellito, father ofMatthew Carmen Sellito, 23, who also died in the World TradeCenter. "If the odds are stacked against us, we will beat them."

The 258-page complaint, filed electronically Thursday in U.S.District Court in Alexandria, seeks more than $1 trillion andcharges the defendants with racketeering, wrongful death,negligence and conspiracy.

Lead attorney Ron Motley said the money would likely comelargely from assets held by the defendants in the United States. Hesaid the plaintiffs were after more institutions than those whoseassets already have been frozen by the U.S. and other governments.

The complaint also ignores the Bush administration's delicatediplomatic balancing act with Saudi Arabia by bluntly blaming thekingdom's officials and institutions for the attacks.

"That kingdom sponsors terrorism," Motley told reporters at anews conference. "This is an insidious group of people."

The complaint names more than seven dozen defendants, includingthe government of Sudan, seven banks, eight Islamic foundations andthree Saudi princes.

Those listed include Princes Mohammed al-Faisal and formerintelligence chief Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Defense Minister Sultanbin Abdul Aziz al Saud, Khalid bin Salim bin Mahfouz of theNational Commercial Bank, and the Faisal Islamic Bank.

Officials from the Saudi Embassy did not immediately return acall for comment.

President Bush's administration has been careful not to blamethe Saudi government for the attacks in its drive build a coalitionfor its war against terrorism.

Prince Saud said last week that the 70-year-old U.S.-Saudialliance was as solid now as before the Sept. 11 attacks on theUnited States.

He said bin Laden, who was stripped of Saudi citizenship and isaccused of directing the al-Qaida attacks, had intended to drive awedge between the two countries when he chose 15 Saudi citizens tobe among the 19 hijackers.

Several plaintiffs, fighting tears, said they would dedicate therest of their lives to punishing those who financed the attacks.

"We will succeed because we have the facts and the law on ourside," said Thomas E. Burnett Sr., whose son, Thomas E. BurnettJr., led a passenger revolt against the hijackers of UnitedAirlines Flight 93 and died when it plummeted to the ground.

"We have justice and morality on our side," he added.

In May, lawyers announced that a group of Libyans had negotiateda deal that would give $10 million each to the families of thosekilled when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie,Scotland, in 1988. But Libya insisted the group did not haveauthorization from the government to negotiate.

— The Associated Press

Judge Lets Government Keep 9/11 Detainees SecretW A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 15 — A federal judge ruled today that the Bushadministration does not have to immediately reveal the names ofthose detained in the investigation of the Sept. 11 terroristattacks. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a stay of her earlierorder to give government lawyers more time to appeal. Kessler said the stay will remain in effect until a federalappeals court has ruled in the matter. That could take months. On Aug. 2, Kessler gave the Justice Department 15 days torelease the names, ruling that federal attorneys had not proven theneed for a blanket policy of secrecy for more than 1,200 peoplepicked up since the attacks. The government informed the court of its intention to appeallast week, arguing in documents that Kessler had missed the pointabout keeping the names secret. Kessler rejected the government's contention that the terroristgroup al Qaeda would be tipped to how much progress investigatorshad made if the detainees' names were released. She said al Qaedaalready would be aware its operatives in the United States weremissing.